


Love in the Time of Trees

by Eirenne Saijima (ladypoetess)



Category: The Shannara Chronicles (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Self-Sacrifice, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 13:46:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13055193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladypoetess/pseuds/Eirenne%20Saijima
Summary: When a princess has sacrificed everything for her people, is she bound to be lonely as well as a tree?





	Love in the Time of Trees

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Othalla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Othalla/gifts).



> AN: This is set after season 1, and I’ve not seen any of season 2, so this may potentially conflict wildly with current show canon. I am also choosing to fix one point in canon: Diana Tilton did not die after the last battle of the War of the Forbidding and the sword wound taken from a demon-influenced Arion.

_ 1 year after the last battle of The War of the Forbidding _

Ander settled into his role as King, with the Elvin council finally behind him, if not entirely united.

Commander Tilton recovered physically from the wounds she suffered in battle, though her mind and spirit will take yet more time.

Wil left Arborlon to return to Safehold and find Eretria.

Bandon disappeared after killing the guards when Catania tried to help him escape.

And Allanon…

Allanon waited.

The leaves of the reborn Ellcrys were healthy and vibrant, the land once more free of the demons that had emerged when the Forbidding failed, but the spirit that gave its life to foster the Ellcrys —Amberle Elessedil— remained silent. However much Allanon laid his hands upon the bark of the tree and sought with his thoughts to find a spark of life from the girl he had known, there was nothing but silence. Allanon could feel Amberle’s spirit within the Ellcrys, but she would not speak to him.

_ I told Wil that she would speak when she was ready, but perhaps I was mistaken. She made the choice, but it was not, truth be known, an unforced decision. Does she feel that I manipulated her? Pulled the puppet strings, as Pyria once said?  _ Not for the first time, Allanon wished for a touch of his master’s gift of sight.

_ # _

Allanon was dreaming. It was a jumble of images and feelings from his past. Training with Bremen. Fighting in the War of the Races. Pyria’s laughter as she lay in his arms. The call of the Druid Sleep the would draw him away from that life. Waking to a new world, one that denied magic and was more vulnerable to the ravages of demonkind than the one he had left decades earlier. The young princess who had her aunt’s kind eyes and headstrong will. The dangers that stalked the Princess who was to be the sacrifice and savior of her people and of all the peoples in the Four Lands.

**_Allanon._ **

The whisper was the faintest breath on his ear, but Allanon sat up, alert, and casting about for the source of the sound that had wakened him. When nothing stirred in the night and the sound did not repeat, he thought it might have been some figment of the dream. Long minutes stretched in the silence of the darkness, but Allanon could not relax back to sleep, feeling sure that there was something he needed to do first.

_ A walk will do me no harm.  _ With a sigh that would have been all but imperceptible in the bustle of the royal palace during the daylight, but which seemed to echo off the walls in the night, Allanon rose and dressed, striding out of his room.

The Black Watch stood at the entrance to the Sanctuary, not offering any challenge as Allanon strode past them and into the heart of it. The garden surrounding the Ellcrys was flourishing under the attentions of the new royal gardener, but it still felt wrong for there to be no Chosen here to guard the sacred tree. King Ander had decreed that the Gauntlet would be run and the Chosen again selected only once Amberle —the Ellcrys— spoke again and could assent to those who would be her guardians. That while, yes, the Chosen had been selected for years beyond counting without the conscious input of the Ellcrys, that was only because the crucial knowledge that the tree was a living sacrifice who could communicate had been lost. It would be wrong, the King reasoned, to put aside the knowledge that had been regained simply because they found it inconvenient. There were those on the Council who argued the point, but enough still remembered the determination on the face of their Princess, before she had left for Safehold and the Bloodfire, that they sided with the King and the matter was settled.

Allanon approached the base of the Ellcrys and knelt, placing one gloved hand upon the extended root of the tree. There is something there. Allanon could not describe it as hearing something, not exactly, but it was almost like hearing a muffled sound. With only a moment’s hesitation, Allanon removed the glove from his left hand and placed his scarred hand bare against the rough wood of the Ellcrys.

**_There you are, Allanon._ **

With only a small spasm in his fingers to show any who might observe the Druid that something was happening, the tension that had built in Allanon over the past year fled from him with those four words that echoed in his mind in the voice of the Princess.

_ Hello, Amberle. _

**_I’ve been trying to reach you, but everything is different here. I can see so much, but I can’t interact with what I see. I can’t even talk to people I would have thought the closest to me, before._** There was pain and confusion in the words.

_ You speak of Wil?  _ Allanon knew how Wil had felt, of course, but the Princess’s feelings had not been so clear before the journey, and there had hardly been time to discuss the matter when she’d returned, before making her sacrifice.

**_Wil, Eretria, even Uncle Ander. I speak, but they cannot hear me._ **

_ They may yet, in time, Princess. _

**_Don’t call me that. I’m not a princess anymore. I’m a tree and a ward and a sacred relic, and that’s all._ ** Allanon almost smiled at the snap in the words now. Elessedil women have always had fire in their spirits, and this one was another struck in the mold of her foremothers.

_ You are still yourself, Amberle. _

**_I am lonely, Allanon. I was warned by the old Ellcrys that I would have to choose, that love would distract me, make it harder, but I didn’t listen and now I’m lonely._** It hurt Allanon’s heart to feel the pain carried in those words. It was a true sacrifice, becoming the Ellcrys and forsaking life to bolster the Forbidding.

_ You miss Wil.  _ It was not a question.

**_Yes. And Eretria._** There was a long pause before the voice continued, softer but with longing. **_And you._**

Allanon lifted his hand from the trunk of the Ellcrys, shock written in the widening of his eyes and the sudden lines of tension in his body. After a moment the sense of a muffled sound returned and he lowered his hand to press his bare palm against the rough bark again.

**_Allanon—_ **

_ I cannot lift the burden of your sacrifice from your shoulders. Nor can I bring back others who might ease the loneliness. But I am here, Amberle. And I won’t leave you. _

The response that flooded Allanon’s mind was not precisely words, but more feelings and half-formed thoughts that had not yet coalesced into discrete words. Relief, shame at the perceived weakness of the need to have one to lean on in even an intangible sense, the idea of being alone forever, only able to speak to those with the right gifts, and the desolation that accompanied that idea, but pride in being able to do something so vital to protect the Elvin people— all peoples, really— underscored it all. After moments of the unrelenting flood from Amberle, Allanon lifted his hand away from the tree, almost without his own volition. He had his “Druid tricks,” as others had called them, that allowed him to listen to others’ thoughts, but he was no seer like Bremen or Bandon. His abilities were all born of Druid teachings and honed through years upon years of practice. It would take time before he could cope with such a rush of thoughts and feelings at once.

When he felt sure of his balance again, Allanon lowered his hand to the bark of the Ellcrys once more.

**_I’m sorry, Allanon._** Amberle’s voice was restrained in his mind now, though tinged with more shame than it had been before; it twisted Allanon’s heart.

_ No, Amberle, there is nothing to apologize for. I am unaccustomed to this, is all. I will adapt, in time. _

**_I don’t know how to do this, Allanon._** There was no audible tone of voice to them, but Amberle’s words carried a desperate anguish all the same. **_It has taken me all this time to be able to reach out at all and have anyone hear me. I don’t know how to be a tree._**

Allanon cracked the barest of smiles.  _ The old Ellcrys had a thousand years to learn how to be a tree. You’ve been learning for one year. Have patience. _

There was silence for several minutes before Amberle’s voice came again, thoughtful.  **_So I am to be alone for age upon age?_ **

_ You will have your Chosen to guard you and be here with you. I am sure King Ander will announce The Gauntlet as soon as I inform him that you have spoken to me. _

**_No, please. Don’t— don’t tell him. Not yet. Amberle’s voice was suddenly tense, anxious. I’m not sure I’m ready for that. I’m not even sure I can ‘talk’ to anyone besides you._ **

_ The Chosen are the companions of the Ellcrys, Amberle. You should have them around you. _

**_And I will. But not yet. Please, Allanon, let me just get used to talking with you first. Please?_ **

_ Very well. I will return in the morning, and I won’t tell the king. Yet. _

**_Thank you, Allanon. Good night._ **

_ Good night, Amberle. _

_ # _

Allanon returned to the Sanctuary and sat, bare palms pressed to the trunk of the silver tree, through the following day and into the early hours of the night. The Black Watch who guarded the entrance to the Sanctuary noted his presence, but said nothing to disturb him and did not enter the Sanctuary proper. For three days, Allanon left the Sanctuary once dark had fallen to return to his room, to eat, and to sleep. But then, when first light had lit the uppermost of the bright, crimson leaves of the Ellcrys, he returned to the Sanctuary and took up his position beside it, hands outstretched and pressed gently to the bark.

On the fourth day, King Ander was waiting in the crepuscular light when Allanon opened his door.

“Good morning, your grace.” Allanon’s gaze flicked past Ander to note the Black Watch guards who stood some distance off, before settling on the king’s face once more. “To what do I owe this honor?”

“You have been often in the Sanctuary of late, Allanon. Reports say you have spent all hours of the daylight with the Ellcrys for days now.”

“Yes, your grace.”

“Has she spoken to you, Allanon?” Ander’s voice wavered only a fraction, but it was there. “Has Amberle finally made contact?”

Allanon did not speak for a long moment, searching Ander’s eyes before, finally, he nodded. “Yes, your grace. She has.”

“Why didn’t you come to me and tell me this?” Now Ander’s voice held a note of suppressed anger, more hidden than it would have been in years past, before the deaths of his father and elder brothers. “If Amberle— if the Ellcrys is willing to communicate now, I must call for The Gauntlet to be run, for a new crop of Chosen to be selected. The Ellcrys must have protectors.”

“Amberle has been struggling to master the rules of her new existence on her own for the last year, your grace. She has only just begun to understand how to communicate with others again, and I have been endeavoring to assist her.” Allanon’s own voice was rock steady, his face impassive as ever. “She asked that I not tell you until she was more sure of her ability to communicate with someone without my training, and I chose to abide by her request.”

Ander blinked in surprise, and then, hesitantly, “She is… still herself? Even now, after becoming the Ellcrys, she is still Amberle?”

“It would be best not to get your hopes too high, your grace. She is adjusting, and still letting go of her life as the princess, for that is what she must do, in the end.” Allanon’s face was implacable, though some part of him wished he could deny the truth of the words he was speaking. “She is still in a transition period between the Elvin girl who was your niece and the sacred tree that protects all the Four Lands. Give her that time, your grace.”

The two men stood silent for long moments until, at last, the king broke the impasse with a short nod. “Very well. I trust you will come to me when the time is upon us?”

“I will.”

With a final nod, King Ander turned and strode from entry to Allanon’s room, leaving the Druid to sag against the wall when there were no eyes to see.

_ And what will I do when that time comes, and she no longer needs me here with her? _

_ # _

**_Allanon!_** Amberle’s voice was buoyant with cheer, and it reached him before he had taken so much as three steps into the Sanctuary.

_ You can reach me without contact now, that’s very good, Amberle.  _ Allanon’s voice held the smile he did allow to show on his face as continued to stride through the courtyard of the Sanctuary. _ Have you been able to reach anyone else yet? _

**_No, not yet. I think I will need contact for most people always, and only some exceptions will allow me greater distance. Druid training, seer’s gifts, that sort of thing._ **

_ The Ellcrys was always said to communicate with the Chosen after they laid hands upon the tree, so that would make sense.  _ Despite his best efforts, Allanon’s words sounded clipped in his own mind, brusquer than he meant them.

**_What is it, Allanon? You seem more closed off today, more guarded than you have been? Has something happened?_ **

_ The king came to see me this morning. _

**_Uncle Ander? Why, what’s wrong? Did something happen? I didn’t see anything…_ **

_ He wanted to know why I have been spending my days here in the Sanctuary. He wanted to know if you were speaking to me. _

**_What did you tell him?_** There was an edge of concern, of suspicion to the words.

_ I could not lie to him, Amberle. I told him you had spoken to me, but that you were not ready to speak to others. _ Allanon did not put forth the rest of the conversation, and for a wonder, she did not ask.

**_I appreciate that. This is still so new to me, even more than a year on, and it helps to have you as a refuge Allanon, even if I know it cannot last forever. I was a sheltered princess, but the old Ellcrys talked to me even as a child. You were right when you said that destiny knew my place in the world, even when I didn’t. The journey to Safehold began to prepare me for this, this existence but there is still no one who can teach me how to be a tree. There are… impressions, I suppose they are, bits of the wisdom of the old Ellcrys that I am finding the longer I am the Ellcrys. Did you know there were other female Chosen in the past?_ **

_ I did not. I suspected it might be the case, but there was nothing written down, and none during my memory.  _ As he thought, Allanon crossed the courtyard and almost absentmindedly removed his gloves before resting his hands against the trunk of the Ellcrys.

**_The old Ellcrys had been threatened by something, I don’t really know what, and she thought she might need a seed— an heir. And so she Chose a young girl, who then grew up to run the Gauntlet. Just like me. She knew, Allanon, even from when I was a child, that she was going to die and that I would need to take her place. Why couldn’t she have told me sooner, so that I could have prepared better?_** There was bitterness and sorrow and regret wrapped around the words like briers.

_ I think she gave you as much chance at a normal childhood and adolescence as she could, Amberle. You deserved all the happiness you could have. You still do.  _ Allanon felt a lump rise in his throat and was grateful he did not need his voice to speak. He knew it was a vain and foolish hope, wanting to give her what happiness remained in his purview to grant, but the voice of the young woman he had known had twined her spirit in and around him until even he sometimes forgot that her body was gone, subsumed into the tree that would now be her existence for all time.

**_I was a silly child who thought she knew and understood love, only to have it proven that I didn’t. And then came Wil and the journey and trials and Eretria, and I thought, surely, now I understand love. The old Ellcrys told me I had to harden my heart, that love would distract me as surely as fear, but why would I listen? I was the Elvin princess, so I must know best!_ **

_ Amberle— _

**_No, Allanon, you don’t understand. I should have learned my lesson by now, but I’m doing it again._ ** _ The bitterness was tinged with sorrow and longing now, spiking through her words like thorns.  _ **_I don’t have a heart to give away any longer, but I’ve lost it all the same. To you._ **

Allanon’s eyes drifted closed and he leaned forward until his forehead rested against the rough silver trunk of the tree. _ Oh, Amberle. You are not alone, in this, or ever. I have lost my own heart to the spirit of a fiery Elvin princess who was strong enough to sacrifice everything for the chance to save her people and those of all the Four Lands. _

**_Allanon…_** This time, the word was wrapped up in longing and love, without the thorns of bitterness.


End file.
